Three students surrender in school vandalism

Chronicle News Service/Rex LarsenDamage caused by vandals in a theater and English classroom in Wyoming Park High School.

WYOMING -- Wyoming police say three students have confessed to breaking into their own school and doing more than $50,000 in damage to the building.

The Wyoming Park High School students -- a 16-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy and his 15-year sister -- walked into the Wyoming Police Department late Tuesday night accompanied by their parents and turned themselves into investigators.

Wyoming Police Chief James Carmody said a fourth suspect could be named later today. Police say the two female students also broke into the school on Jan. 31. In both cases the intent was to do enough damage to cause the school to close the next day. Unlike the Jan 31. instance, the suspects were successful with the early Tuesday morning alleged vandalism.

Wyoming Superintendent Jon Felske said he received numerous calls Tuesday night from people giving suspect names, and he alerted investigators that some of the names of suspects were consistent between different callers.

Courtesy PhotoThree vandals are shown from a surveillance camera in Wyoming Park HIgh School. The school was closed after the vandalism was discovered around 6 a.m. Tuesday.

The students scrawled references to Grandville High School in some of the classrooms that they damaged. Police said the suspects told investigators they did this to turn attention away from Wyoming Park High School students.

"They knew eventually we were going to catch up to them at some point," Carmody said at the Wyoming Public School administration building. "We were not going to be pulled off based on something they left behind."

Felske said the identities of the students were surprising.

"These are not students that you would have thought had issues in the past," he said. "We were surprised about the names we were hearing."

The damage estimate is still being tallied but it was in excess of $50,000, Felske said.